Sontag On Women

The new collection of essays by Susan Sontag "On Women" was compiled by her son David Rieff from texts written and published from 1972 to 1975, during one of the most resonant periods of the women's movement in the USA. Sontag's polemical and sometimes radical ideas about what it means to be a woman in the modern world are presented in critical essays, magazine questionnaires, and interviews, as well as in a discussion in letters with poet and feminist Adrienne Rich. Mixing lively journalism with generalized analysis, Sontag raises questions about the double standard of aging, women's sexual validity, women's relationships with each other, the connections of the women's movement with other revolutionary movements, women's self-oppression, the functioning of ideals of beauty, the eroticization of fascism, the plurality of feminist positions, and more. The collection reflects the turbulent era of the early 1970s, as well as Sontag's own journey, maintaining critical relevance even today.